Which consoles have you owned?

[Andrew NDB]

Mostly modern-era.

[neatoman]

Oh boy... Let's break this down into categories:

Nintendo:

NES
SNES
N64 (my first one)
Gamecube
Wii
Wii U
Switch


Sony:

Playstation (First model)
Playstation 2 (Slim)
Playstation 3 (First model, I think)
Playstation 4 (First model, smaller Hard Drive)


Microsoft:

Xbox
Xbox 360 (First model)
Xbox 360 (slim)

[Andrew NDB]

Does anyone remember when the PS1 acronym was "PSX"? Then that sort of evaporated. I'll sometimes catch myself using "PSX" in conversations about the PS1 after the fact, after people have no idea what I'm talking about.

[frank_one]

PSX was its codename, I remember reading it in 1994/1995 magazines along with images of the prototype.

[Leo656]

So many that this list can't contain them all. :lol:

Atari:
- 2600

Mattel:
- ColecoVision (w/Atari 2600 Expansion Module)

Nintendo:
- NES Model 1 (w/Zapper & Power Pad)
- NES Model 2 (aka "The Top-Loader")
- SNES Model 1
- SNES Model 2
- N64
- Gamecube (w/Game Boy Player)
- Wii
- Wii U

Sega:
- Genesis Model 2
- Saturn

Sony:
- PS1
- PS2 Model 1
- PS3 Model 2

Microsoft:
- Xbox
- Xbox 360
- Xbox One

Technically, I DID have both a Game Boy Advance and Sega Dreamcast, but in both cases someone stole them from me so quickly that I only barely count myself as having owned them. I no longer have my SNES Model 1, same reason.

My PS2 and original Xbox also no longer work. I keep meaning to look into replacing them but I forget sometimes. I'm specifically holding out for a PS2 that's been modded to be Region-free, as there are a lot of Japanese wrestling games I want to play for it.

Also planning on getting a Sega Master System and Dreamcast in the semi-near future, depending on how things play out. Would have gotten both of them already this year, if not for... YOU know.

[neatoman]

Why is the Mega Drive CD module on the poll? I know there is a version with a built in CD drive but from what I understand, it was far more common to buy the module because the regular Mega Drive had been on the market for years by the time it was released.

[Leo656]

I mean... technically it's another console. Or at least, for a mere "expansion", it sure COST as much as one at the time.

I say count it. It's just a semantic argument, and Genesis/CD all-in-one products like the JVC X-Eye do exist. Feels like splitting hairs, really. Most people discuss it as its own separate console even though it didn't run without the Genesis.

I bet they could have made the Sega CD run independently, but were probably afraid of losing Genesis support just as it was really heating up. So they built and marketed it as an "expansion" to the Genesis rather than an entirely separate console. But technology being what it was, I bet they could have released it as a stand-alone. Might have even been cheaper that way.

As a kid I only knew ONE person who had a Sega CD. And they could never get it to work so they almost never messed with it.

[neatoman]

Weren't the Mega Drive modules seen as kind of pointless anyway? The 32X was released only a few months before the Saturn and while the CD module was more justified, most the games were either FMV trash or were basically only better in terms of sound quality because MP3 files could be stored on the disc.

There's a reason why Nintendo never released the Famicom Disk System, Famicom Data Recorder, Satellaview and 64DD outside of Japan. Good ideas in general, I'm willing to bet the floppy disk version of Zelda has a more reliable save feature since it's not hinging on a battery life, but if you're gonna improve the technology you might as well start from scratch.

I'm actually a little curious about the Xbox Series X, it's allegedly based entire on the idea that you can swap modules around. I wonder how much of the original hardware will still be in the box by the time I've replaced the parts several times over and when they feel justified in making a new console instead of adding modules. And can the modules them have additional modules attached? It it eventually going to look like one of those infamous Mega Drive stacks?
https://res.cloudinary.com/practicaldev/image/fetch/s--6Ugmwhha--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_880/https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/9ky7ms9j847a469da3qt.jpg

[Leo656]

Weren't the Mega Drive modules seen as kind of pointless anyway?

Mostly. The 32X specifically is pretty hard to justify in any context. Once again, more than anything it was just Sega not wanting to alienate Genesis customers (and more specifically, their parents) with the looming prospect of a brand new $400 console (Saturn) coming out soon. So they fibbed and said that for under $100 you could get this 32X gimmick and "upgrade" your Genesis to be able to play games that were "similar" to the Saturn's games. Which turned out to be... not very true at all. Most people mark that as the very first cracks in Sega's armor and the beginning of their fall from grace.

Sega CD wasn't AS big of a failure given that it technically worked as advertised and there were SOME good games on it that you either couldn't play elsewhere, like Sonic CD, or were the best possible home ports of those games, like the original Mortal Kombat. It definitely could have been a much greater success, and it's false to say there was nothing worth playing on it, but most developers did not bother to take advantage of the hardware to its potential, no. It also didn't help that the laser was finicky and the consoles had a bad habit of simply not working after a short time. If it had been a hit, one would have to assume the mythical "Nintendo PlayStation" co-produced by Nintendo and Sony would definitely have come to pass. As it was, the dual combo of "The Sega CD doesn't work right/There's hardly any games for it anyway" led to a tepid response and made the CD market seem like a waste of resources for Nintendo. But you have to think that they'd have adopted a different attitude if it had done huge business.

Both Gaming Historian and Sega Lord X have several great videos on these topics. As a kid who grew up in a Nintendo house, I must say that I'm a huge fan of Sega Lord X and have learned a ton of things I never knew about Sega and their consoles and games through his videos. Everything from why certain strategies failed to what games are actually best worth playing on each system, his videos are highly recommended and definitely worth checking out.

[AquaParade]

Does anyone have the new consoles?

[Storm Eagle]

I own every Nintendo console except for the Virtual Boy, and I have a PlayStation 2. They're all the original models, although I also have the Game Boy Advance SP, DS lite, and the New 3DS XL.

[Leo656]

Here's a question: Anybody ever get rid of a system (and its games) you wish you'd kept?

My wife is furious with herself for getting rid of her Sega CD and Saturn about 15-20 years ago. She can't remember why, other than she probably needed money for car stuff and the thinking was "It's old stuff anyway, probably never look at it again". But she had quite an extensive collection of games for each and the prices are INSANE right now, so she's quite angry with Young Her. We ended up getting a Saturn a couple years ago, but we have like, three games for it because good luck finding any for less than $100 on that f*cking thing.

I never get rid of anything as a rule, but I sincerely wish that someone hadn't stolen my ColecoVision w/Atari module when I was a kid. I had a TON of games for that and I can't even remember the names of most of them so rebuilding that collection has been a chore. I also never should have let my friend borrow my Dreamcast, as he in turn let his brother borrow it and I never saw it again. I would have bought more games for it - before prices exploded into insanity - but without the console I figured there was no point. Now I want to replace it but games are prohibitively expensive.

This is why it just doesn't pay to get rid of stuff. :lol:

[Andrew NDB]

PSX was its codename, I remember reading it in 1994/1995 magazines along with images of the prototype.

There was LITERALLY an ongoing magazine called "PSX" back then, wasn't there? And I recall all the other mags of the time (EGM, etc.) all followed suit. Until one day everyone forgot about it.

Systems I wish I'd kept? Yeah, I had a Colecovision. My first memory of games was that. And a Texas Instruments... something. And a couple of Ataris we got at a swap meet... but none of those left an impression. The first "wow cooool!" impression of mine was the Sega Master System. Like, Google it. It looked badass, even for the era. And the gun was way cooler than the NES gun. Had many good times with it... but eventually I was in fact shamed into selling it to get a NES.

[Leo656]

Yeah, the Master System was a total non-factor over here and that's a real shame. I'd never even seen one until around 1992 or 1993, at my uncle's place. And he even mostly only got it by accident. This was right when the Genesis was starting to get big, and he had a young daughter, and people around here generally referred to products by their manufacturing names. You didn't say, for example, "I have a 2600", you'd say "I have an Atari." You wouldn't say you owned an NES, you'd say, "I have a Nintendo". And so on. So he most likely was intent on buying a Genesis, but went out looking to "Buy a Sega", and came across the Master System which was most likely on Clearance by that point. It was cheaper than the Genesis, and "Master System" sounds more elaborate, so not knowing anything at all about video games he probably assumed that he'd come across a fantastic deal instead of picking up a "dead" format. He didn't really have many games for it, but I still would mess with it whenever we'd go visit.

I really wish I'd have had one back then. I was always perfectly happy with my NES but it wasn't like I was a console snob or anything; we just didn't have a ton of money to go around for buying all these different systems and games, so generally, whatever brand your parents picked for you was what you stuck with throughout the generations. With regards to the Master System, though, that choice was pretty much made by no stores over here even carrying it, so nobody had one.

Real shame, as in looking back you can see that it had a lot of merit and even a few advantages over the NES. And, as usual, its lack of commercial success means that finding games "in the wild" is crazy expensive now.

I'm hoping my wrestling buddy cuts me a good deal. He says he has the console and a bunch of games but needs to take inventory first, and I'm waiting to hear back from him about it. Hopefully I get the "friend" price.
-----------------

Longtime Super NES enthusiast, but only very recently got into playing Super Famicom games. I know, same system, but the carts are different. I was originally just gonna buy a console, but then a buddy smartened me up that they made $20 adapters now that let you play Super Famicom games on your SNES, so that saved me like $100. Having a blast with Super Fire Pro Wrestling, with a few more on the way. It's amazing how cheap most of the good Super Famicom games really are! Lucky me. Wish I'd known sooner.

[neatoman]

Here's a question: Anybody ever get rid of a system (and its games) you wish you'd kept?

I traded in my GBC for a GBA SP. I kept most of the games because of backwards compatibility. The reason I regret it is kind of stupid, I haven't been able to find another one in the same exact color.

[Galactus]

Nintendo
NES
SNES
Nintendo 64
Gamecube
Wii
Wii U
Switch
Gameboy
Gameboy Colour
Gameboy Advance
DS
3DS

Sega
Multi-Mega (Known as a Sega CD X in North America)
Game Gear

Sony
PS1
PS2
PS4

Microsoft
Xbox 360

[IMJ]

I loved the Playstation Magazine of the 90's. For a while they titled it "PSM" on the cover for those of you that remember it. It was like Nintendo Power on steroids as far as production quality goes.

I still have a ton of them in storage along with a pretty big pile of premium demo discs for my next game sale. Some of those demo discs sell incredibly well too man.

[CyberCubed]

Everything Nintendo. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii-U, Switch. And Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, DS and 3DS

I was a Nintendo-only gamer till about 2007. Then I got a PS2 and had to catch up on all the PS2 games I missed, then via the Virtual Console and digital downloads...I was able to catch up on all old Sega games plus old SNES games I missed out on as a kid.

Then I went on with PS3/PS4. I never owned an Xbox console but now with Gamepass on PC I'm playing through the Halo's, Gears of War, etc. that I never played before.

It's kinda ironic that now having playing thousands of games across every company...I still like Nintendo games the best. Resident Evil is my favorite third party franchise but most other games are "one and done" for me. Metal Gear Solid was also a favorite but it's pretty much done now.

[Storm Eagle]

Here's a question: Anybody ever get rid of a system (and its games) you wish you'd kept?



When I wanted the SNES, my mother told me that I'd have to give the NES away. I'd get one a year later, but she wasn't pressuring me to give up the NES. I still kept it, but then I decided to give it away to some of my younger cousins. Then I'd take it back later.

So I've never given up anything else. When I got a Game Boy Color, I stowed the original Game Boy away. Then I stowed the Game Boy Color upon getting a Game Boy Advance, and then stowed that when I got a GBA SP. I did the same with my original DS model when I got the DS lite, and to the original 3DS mode when I got the New 3DS XL.

[sdp]

NES, SNES, Virtual Boy, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Switch, GB, GB Pocket, GB Color, GBA, GBA SP, GB Micro, NDS lite, N3DS, N3DS XL, Game & Watch.
Non nintendo: PS2, Dreamcast
Kind of count: Master System handheld & Atari Flashback

Yeah, always been a Nintendo gamer, when I was 13 and considered myself a "hardcore gamer" :lol: of course i wanted to own everything. and got a PS2 since I wanted also a DVD player and was pissed Gamecube wouldn't have one. Played tons of PS2 and ps1 thanks to it. I had a friend with a Genesis and loved it, played tons of arcade games on the dreamcast that I got when it was $99, sega had already gone third party when I got it.

I was close on many occasions of getting a PS3 since I did like my PS2 a lot but never did and instead started gaming on PC and never saw the need of getting any other Playstation or Xbox consoles because I could play 95% of their great libraries in their definitive versions on PC for cheaper. Yeah, I miss out on a few exclusives, mostly miss the ICO series but they've only had one new game since the PS2 era and it was a disappointment, and any xbox exclusives are now on PC so..Nintendo games are the only ones worth owning a console for in my opinion since they make tons of exclusives that you can't play on PC.

[Galactus]

Looking at this thread it's interesting to see how the consumption of console gaming has changed. When I was a kid the Nintendo vs Sega marketing campaign meant I was exclusive to Nintendo for a long time (and I've certainly kept up that brand loyalty over time. It was a big deal for me when I persuaded my Grandparents to buy me the Multi Mega and that was because the catalogue were practically giving them away with a bunch of free games and it was late in both systems life cycles. At the time it felt huge to own two of the then current consoles but now it's fairly normal.

"super nintendo sega genesis when i was dead broke man I couldn't picture this"

Notorious B.I.G.

[Leo656]

I'm so glad that my parents, or specifically my Dad, never pulled that "If you want ____ you have to get rid of ____" bullsh*t. Obviously I understood money and that you can't have everything, but my Dad always made it a point even when we didn't have a lot of money to try and spoil me as much as possible. I think because he worked a lot and he and my Mom fought all the time, and sometimes when he was at work she'd get drunk and terrorize me in various ways. So buying me stuff, I guess, was his way of just trying to balance things out. So I had it pretty good for a long while.

He's the one who technically got me into video games in the first place, since he got the ColecoVision/Atari before I even knew what "video games" were, and seeing him play Frogger and Donkey Kong made me want to play them, and it all just grew from there. He didn't stick with games after the NES came out - controllers having TWO or more buttons instead of just one really blew his mind, it was "too complicated" now so he didn't play them ever again :lol: - but he always thought video games were awesome, he just admired them from a distance. Every time a new console would come out with better graphics he'd watch me play and just marvel and be amazed. When "WCW vs. The World" came out for PS1 he dragged his friends into my room to watch me play it because he just couldn't believe how "amazing" it was (which it totally was at the time; don't be misled when you look at it now since it's so "primitive", through a 1997 lens it was absolutely mind-blowing).

I remember the one time I did give something away - the ColecoVision/Atari and its games - it was to my older brother who lived across town. We'd just gotten the NES, and being a dumb little 6-year old I figured "I have new stuff, I won't want to play this old stuff anymore", and my Dad, I realize now, tried to talk me out of it, being all like "Are you SURE? You never know, you might want to play them again one day..." Turns out about two years later, that's exactly what happened. I loved my NES but I'd start to get antsy for some Frogger or Megamania or whatever. And then when I finally got a TV in my room, I wanted to play games in there before bed or whatever but I didn't want to hook the NES up to the little "crappy" TV since it was better on the big living room TV. So I decided I wanted the ColecoVision back to hook up to the TV in my room. Luckily for me, my brother never even bothered to unpack it after I'd given it to him, so he just gave it back. I never got rid of anything on purpose after that. Although a few years later, some asshole broke in while we were out and stole the f*cking thing, along with a few other things. But of ALL the sh* t they took that was the biggest hit. I still get pissed about that.

Even after I had the SNES, my Dad wasn't necessarily adverse to getting more things, depending on money of course. Shortly after that the Genesis was getting really popular, and he was hearing so much about it that one day he asked me if I wanted him to get that, too. And I said no, and I stand by it, even though it seems dumb in hindsight, but what I was doing was being considerate of our financial situation as well as looking at the SNES as more of a long-term investment. See, by that point we really weren't doing great anymore and things were getting tight. So since there was only so much money to go around, and I already had a SNES, I told him that I'd prefer he take the money it would cost to buy a Genesis and instead buy me some SNES games I didn't have. It seemed silly to buy another console and only own one or two games for them, when I could instead get another 4 or 5 games for the one I already owned, y'know? It's worth mentioning that renting wasn't an option for a while around this time, as our local Mom-N-Pop video store went under and all the other places in our area required a credit card, which my parents didn't have (believe it or not, back then not everybody had a credit card). I really did want a Genesis - like I said, I've never been a "console snob", I love all the different brands and consoles for their own reasons, always have - but having a clear understanding that there was only so much money to go around, it just seemed wiser to stick with the SNES. A few of my friends had the Genesis anyway, so it's not like I never got to play it, and that was another factor in my decision.

My Mom never gave a sh*t about games. She preferred I not play them, since she figured they gave me a bad temper (when in truth, having her get drunk and scream at me and throw things probably had a LOT more to do with that than video games did! :lol:). And when she wanted to punish me she'd hide the plug cable to the NES or whatever. But when Dad got home he'd always put a stop to that sh*t REAL quick. "Don't be stupid, you can't take the kid's games away." I'd get punished otherwise for whatever it was, but even my Dad figured that taking my video games away was cruel and unusual.

Good times. Back before he went nuts. :lol: But yeah, before that he did his best, and it's really him I have to thank for video games being such a huge part of my life. I'm sad he's not around anymore because he'd be amazed at some of the stuff out now. Like I said, he never really played games after the Atari age, but for whatever reason he always thought they were really f*cking cool anyways. We had very little in common so it's great that we at least had that.

[Leo656]

Looking at this thread it's interesting to see how the consumption of console gaming has changed. When I was a kid the Nintendo vs Sega marketing campaign meant I was exclusive to Nintendo for a long time (and I've certainly kept up that brand loyalty over time. It was a big deal for me when I persuaded my Grandparents to buy me the Multi Mega and that was because the catalogue were practically giving them away with a bunch of free games and it was late in both systems life cycles. At the time it felt huge to own two of the then current consoles but now it's fairly normal.


See, I can definitely understand that, especially as we were kids, but I always thought that was a silly way of thinking. Being overly-influenced by the marketing, I mean. Clearly the only reason NOT to have both was strictly about money - to our age group, specifically, it was about what Mommy and Daddy were willing to spend on video game stuff. But when I played SNES I thought, "This is really awesome," and then when I played a Genesis I thought "This, too, is also really awesome." I explained why I remained a "Nintendo Loyalist" during a specific period of time, but it wasn't anything tribal. I laughed at the "Console Wars".

Of course kids on the playground would pull the "Nintendo's better!" "Nuh-uh, Genesis is better!" horse sh*t, but I always no-sold it. It was such obvious sour grapes, it's not like these kids were making the spending decisions, maybe they were picking out their console of choice, but c'mon. Whenever kids would try and push the issue on me, I'd be like "Be real, you like Genesis best because that's what you have. But if 'Santa' or whoever just gave you an SNES, would you keep it or get rid of it? Be f*cking honest." The only SANE answer is "Of course I'd love to have everything", so if someone dug in their heels about which one was "the best" and how they'd never waste their time on the competing console(s), I knew I was talking to a complete idiot. ALL my Sega Friends still came over to my house to rock some Mario or Super Castlevania IV, they just didn't brag about it. :trazz: And of course I went over to their houses to play Sonic and Streets of Rage or whatever.

Having a strict brand loyalty to specific video game consoles never made any sense to me, given how they all had such awesome exclusive stuff to play. Obviously kids are dumb, but when they'd get all "_______ is awesome and _____ is stupid", it really annoyed the crap out of me. Having a preference is one thing but back then kids really took that stuff too far for really dumb reasons.

I mean, I love Nintendo, but in hindsight, it's a real shame the Sega Master System was a complete failure in America. It was 100% about marketing and nothing else. It was a great console with a lot of great games, but you were "a dork" if you didn't have an NES, and Nintendo was leaning on retailers not to even stock the Master System at all, which was dirty pool but the NES was so popular everyone just caved in to their demands. But that wasn't fair or right. A great console that lots of kids would have loved to have was barely a blip on the radar over here for absolute nonsense reasons, and that makes me sad.

It seems like everyone's a lot more mature nowadays when it comes to the "brand loyalty" thing, but I really wouldn't know.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

My first console was a ps1 which my uncle got me as a gift when I was about 6 or 7 I think.

The ps1 lasted me a long time until about 2008ish, when it finally died and I got myself a Wii.

Unfortunately, the Wii was a Korean model which gets bricked rather easily, so I only got to enjoy the Wii for 1 year.

Then in 2011, I got a ps3 slim which still works perfectly to this day. I did briefly consider buying a Nintendo Switch for Smash Bros Ultimate, but with a busy schedule where even playing on the ps3 is a luxury, I don't think I'd have the time or attention span to dedicate my time to a Switch, however great the console may be.

And I don't know if its just me, but I never liked owning more than one console at a time. Maybe it was my upbringing, where my parents didn't allow me to have more than one system at a time, but I also fear getting the new console if the old one is still working since the latter would then end up collecting dust from not being used.

[CyberCubed]

I mean are you really so busy you can't play games? Most people have full time jobs and still have time to play videogames after.

I play about 5-6 hours of videogames a day but even with only 1-2 hours that's enough time to play whatever you want. I play about 50 new games a year in addition to replaying old games and I have time to finish everything, and some of these games go on for 50 hours of gameplay.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I mean are you really so busy you can't play games? Most people have full time jobs and still have time to play videogames after.

I play about 5-6 hours of videogames a day but even with only 1-2 hours that's enough time to play whatever you want. I play about 50 new games a year in addition to replaying old games and I have time to finish everything, and some of these games go on for 50 hours of gameplay.

I do take time out of my day to play games, but I feel that there is so much variety nowadays that I don't feel the need to get a new console.

In between Pc, Ps3 and Mobile Games, I am more than sufficiently entertained so getting a Switch would feel redundant to me.

[Last Ronin]

All of them except the Xbox.

F**k the Xbox.

[CyberCubed]

I do take time out of my day to play games, but I feel that there is so much variety nowadays that I don't feel the need to get a new console.

In between Pc, Ps3 and Mobile Games, I am more than sufficiently entertained so getting a Switch would feel redundant to me.

Don't you play Nintendo games? How do you do it?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Don't you play Nintendo games? How do you do it?

Emulators on phone and Pc.

[sdp]

I mean are you really so busy you can't play games? Most people have full time jobs and still have time to play videogames after.
video games?
https://media.tenor.com/images/0b947c56571f6ab0cf219b763ec8fb0d/tenor.gif
Exercise, full time job, house chores, live with significant other, new puppy, start-up, investments, post-grad. Games require too much time, at least I do when I play them, I don't get through too many hours for games a year.


Emulators on phone and Pc.
https://i.makeagif.com/media/4-16-2016/Cj-VKX.gif

Be careful of the DMCA IP rights police in the drome.

[CyberCubed]

Exercise, full time job, house chores, live with significant other, new puppy, start-up, investments, post-grad. Games require too much time, at least I do when I play them, I don't get through too many hours for games a year..

Even if I had to do all these things, I would still make time for games.

[frank_one]

There was LITERALLY an ongoing magazine called "PSX" back then, wasn't there? And I recall all the other mags of the time (EGM, etc.) all followed suit. Until one day everyone forgot about it.Yes, there was a magazine with that name. The funny thing is that at some point, when the PS2 came out, people started to call the first PlayStation "PSOne" wich was actually the name of the second version. So we came from calling it with its codename to calling it with the name of its second model.

[TigerClaw]

I have about everything on that poll except for the Sega Saturn and original X-Box.

[Wildcat]

NES, Genesis, PS, N64, Dreamcast, PS2 Slim (replaced first model), Xbox, GameCube, 360 S (replaced first model), Wii, PS3 Slim, WiiU, Switch.

Portable - Original GameBoy (traded it), Game Gear, GB Color, GBA, GBASP (sold it), DSLite.

Don’t regret getting rid of those since DS and GBA are backwards compatible. I wouldn’t mind getting another SP for the lit screen. I hardly play portables though.

[GoldMutant]

-NES (through grandparents)
-Original X-Box (through grandparents)
-PS2 (became mine in 2005 when sister moved out)
-Game Boy Advance
-Nintendo DS Lite
-Wii
-Gamecube
-Nintendo "New" 3DS
-X-Box 360
-Nintendo Switch

With the exception of the NES and X-Box being under my grandparents' home (likely going to ask to take), the rest are my own property. Of them, the only two I currently do not have that are listed are my 360, and I believe my Wii because of home.

Then again, I need to look through some old bags to find em. At the least, the PS2, both the DS and 3DS, GBA, and Switch are under my belt. That, and I have a few games from both the original PlayStation and Game Boy Color. Eventually, I'd like access to a Dreamcast, the original PlayStation itself, and Super Nintendo.

[Storm Eagle]

I'm so glad that my parents, or specifically my Dad, never pulled that "If you want ____ you have to get rid of ____" bullsh*t. Obviously I understood money and that you can't have everything, but my Dad always made it a point even when we didn't have a lot of money to try and spoil me as much as possible. I think because he worked a lot and he and my Mom fought all the time, and sometimes when he was at work she'd get drunk and terrorize me in various ways. So buying me stuff, I guess, was his way of just trying to balance things out. So I had it pretty good for a long while.



It was just like my mother to pull things like that anyway. She was wicked strict. She even made me once use money I got one Christmas to buy things for other people, which ticked me off back then since I didn't get a lot of money that year. The year after that, I got a lot more, and she still made me do the same thing. I bought three CDs with it, and I was going to get Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, but I ended up not having enough left for that. So I just went and got it for my birthday the following year since I got enough money from my father that time.

See, I can definitely understand that, especially as we were kids, but I always thought that was a silly way of thinking. Being overly-influenced by the marketing, I mean. Clearly the only reason NOT to have both was strictly about money - to our age group, specifically, it was about what Mommy and Daddy were willing to spend on video game stuff. But when I played SNES I thought, "This is really awesome," and then when I played a Genesis I thought "This, too, is also really awesome." I explained why I remained a "Nintendo Loyalist" during a specific period of time, but it wasn't anything tribal. I laughed at the "Console Wars".



I figured my mother would be one of those parents who'd just let me have one console. So I just went for the SNES after enjoying the NES for years. Maybe it's because I was probably on the "wrong side", but console wars were annoying back then. I had a friend who was the ULTIMATE Genesis fanboy, and tried to convince me so hard to get one when it was the SNES I was the most interested in. He could be pretty over the top with how he'd fanboy over the Genesis too. I think he even made up lies to convince me to get one, like telling me that there's this Genesis commercial with a kid saying that if you don't have Genesis, then you're a big big loser. I've never seen such a commercial, and others I've asked have told me they've never seen it either. Even if that commercial was a thing, no one should feel as though they're a loser for not having a Genesis. He'd end up getting an SNES though, because Street Fighter II came out for it. Then he had buyer's remorse when he found out that Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition would be coming out for the Genesis. Ironically, he got Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES.

There was also this other Genesis fanboy who seemed to come off as though he thought he was better than me because he had a Genesis. He particularly bragged about how its sports games "overpower" those on the SNES. I didn't care much about sports games anyway, although NBA Jam was the only one I ever owned. I'd eventually give that up anyway.

[CyberCubed]

In the 80's and 90's videogames were considered strictly for kids and when you became a teen you were expected to outgrow it and never play games again.

It wasn't until the early 2000's when GTA III came out and Halo and then Call of Duty that it became more socially acceptable for teens and adults in their 20's to still play games. And of course that continued through the whole early 2000's to this very day.

I still remember the days when owning an N64 made you "kiddie" and you had people wondering why you were still playing games. Only my fellow 30+ year olds will remember this, but games were viewed very differently in the 80's and 90's than now.

[neatoman]

I know some armchair historians tend to look at the console war between the Genesis and Super Nintendo, then portray Sega and Nintendo as some sort of great titanic rivals... Looking at the actual sales data and not the commercial or the subjective experiences however... No they weren't. Not before during or after that particular console generation.

It was arguably pretty close in the United States, where the Genesis sold 18 million. That 18 million however accounts for roughly 60% of the worldwide sales. And the Super Nintendo sold better than the Mega Drive in every region, including the US.

[IMJ]

Emulators on phone and Pc.

I just picked this thing up a few weeks back.

https://i.imgur.com/P03dDVgm.jpg

It can handle every home system made through the PSOne. I've been messing around with the arcade emulator on it and have been playing Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden (arcade).
I'm getting antsy to find the arcade ROM for Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom... LMAO!

I'm sure that there'd be some slow down on the more sophisticated PSOne games, but so far I've only really goofed with Crash Bandicoot. I'd say it's a perfect tool though for game systems maybe through the 16-bit generation and all arcade. It plays Dreamcast too.

I know some armchair historians tend to look at the console war between the Genesis and Super Nintendo, then portray Sega and Nintendo as some sort of great titanic rivals... Looking at the actual sales data and not the commercial or the subjective experiences however... No they weren't. Not before during or after that particular console generation.

It was arguably pretty close in the United States, where the Genesis sold 18 million. That 18 million however accounts for roughly 60% of the worldwide sales. And the Super Nintendo sold better than the Mega Drive in every region, including the US.

This is some cool perspective on these numbers. I would've said that there was a Nintendo/Sega rivalry too, but that's the U.S. consumer perspective. Here there was a rivalry. Hell, Genesis did their "blast processing" thing so the SNES released the Road Runner game to show it could do the same thing, lol! Ridiculous....

[frank_one]

In the 80's and 90's videogames were considered strictly for kids and when you became a teen you were expected to outgrow it and never play games again.

It wasn't until the early 2000's when GTA III came out and Halo and then Call of Duty that it became more socially acceptable for teens and adults in their 20's to still play games. And of course that continued through the whole early 2000's to this very day.

I still remember the days when owning an N64 made you "kiddie" and you had people wondering why you were still playing games. Only my fellow 30+ year olds will remember this, but games were viewed very differently in the 80's and 90's than now.It's true. It was like that in Europe and USA (in Japan I guess it has always been acceptable for an adult to play videogames and being interested in anime and comics). The Playstation was probably the first console to be considered for a wider age range. Games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid and GTA changed a lot.

[Storm Eagle]

In the 80's and 90's videogames were considered strictly for kids and when you became a teen you were expected to outgrow it and never play games again.

It wasn't until the early 2000's when GTA III came out and Halo and then Call of Duty that it became more socially acceptable for teens and adults in their 20's to still play games. And of course that continued through the whole early 2000's to this very day.

I still remember the days when owning an N64 made you "kiddie" and you had people wondering why you were still playing games. Only my fellow 30+ year olds will remember this, but games were viewed very differently in the 80's and 90's than now.

I think the PlayStation might have changed the game. (No pun intended.) It was definitely the console for the "mature" games. I remember when I started seeing PlayStation ads at bus stops of all places, and that seemed to be one of the things that made it clear that video games shouldn't be considered just toys.




This is some cool perspective on these numbers. I would've said that there was a Nintendo/Sega rivalry too, but that's the U.S. consumer perspective. Here there was a rivalry. Hell, Genesis did their "blast processing" thing so the SNES released the Road Runner game to show it could do the same thing, lol! Ridiculous....

I remember that commercial coming on when I was on the phone with the aforementioned Genesis fanboy friend. He cracked up at the part of the commercial that showed how dull the SNES was for lacking the so-called "blast processing". That was revealed to have been nothing but a marketing buzz word in this article that Nintendo had put out in video game magazines. It said that their game Uniracers was capable of doing the same thing too.

[Shark_Blade]

Where’s PS5 and current Xbox whatsitsname?

[oldmanwinters]

Systems I'd like to own but never have:

PC-Engine CD: not sure how reliable the "CD" based tech would hold up, but I've always wanted to play that system's exclusive version of Double Dragon II on authentic hardware.

I kick myself for passing on a basic US model TurboGrafx-16 system years ago priced at under $60. I've always thought the name was so delightfully weird.

Neo-Geo: most of the SNK classics are readily available for legal purchase at cheap prices on compilations and such, but Neo-Geo just has a great mystique about it.

Atari Jaguar: Again, I'd be skeptical of CD-based hardware's reliability, but when I was a kid I always assumed the Jaguar was the most powerful system available that nobody wanted to buy (price, games, limited availability, etc.)

Atari Lynx: another thing I passed on years ago at price of $99. With old portables, sometimes you just don't have confidence in the screen or speakers to drop the money on them.

Sega Nomad: I own tons of Genesis units and Sega ports their old ROMS to everything imaginable, so it would be something of a waste, but I'd still love to have one.

Speaking of a rare hardware unit I'm very proud to own: a Sega CDX. I picked up a great condition unit from my LCS years ago with a lot of games for about $70, which is crazy to think about these days, considering how many money even broken CDX units go for. I don't have a working Model 1 or 2 Sega CD, so the CDX is my only option for playing the Sega CD games, even though it seems like a variety of games freeze up during cutscenes. I don't know if that's probably the fault of the discs (scratches I can't see?) or the system. I suspect the discs as the crashes/freezes usually occur consistently at precise moments in cutscenes/load screens.

Speaking of Sega all-in-one units that never saw production, I would love to own the "Neptune" Genesis-32X combo unit just to simplify the pain of hooking up a 32X mushroom to play one of 20 games. The prototype photos of that combo unit looked all kinds of sleek plastic goodness. Also, the idea of pairing the "Neptune" with the "Saturn" would have been hilarious if both systems hadn't cooperated to bankrupt the company.

[IMJ]

Systems I'd like to own but never have:

PC-Engine CD: not sure how reliable the "CD" based tech would hold up, but I've always wanted to play that system's exclusive version of Double Dragon II on authentic hardware.

I kick myself for passing on a basic US model TurboGrafx-16 system years ago priced at under $60. I've always thought the name was so delightfully weird.

Neo-Geo: most of the SNK classics are readily available for legal purchase at cheap prices on compilations and such, but Neo-Geo just has a great mystique about it.

Atari Jaguar: Again, I'd be skeptical of CD-based hardware's reliability, but when I was a kid I always assumed the Jaguar was the most powerful system available that nobody wanted to buy (price, games, limited availability, etc.)

Atari Lynx: another thing I passed on years ago at price of $99. With old portables, sometimes you just don't have confidence in the screen or speakers to drop the money on them.

Sega Nomad: I own tons of Genesis units and Sega ports their old ROMS to everything imaginable, so it would be something of a waste, but I'd still love to have one.

Speaking of a rare hardware unit I'm very proud to own: a Sega CDX. I picked up a great condition unit from my LCS years ago with a lot of games for about $70, which is crazy to think about these days, considering how many money even broken CDX units go for. I don't have a working Model 1 or 2 Sega CD, so the CDX is my only option for playing the Sega CD games, even though it seems like a variety of games freeze up during cutscenes. I don't know if that's probably the fault of the discs (scratches I can't see?) or the system. I suspect the discs as the crashes/freezes usually occur consistently at precise moments in cutscenes/load screens.

Speaking of Sega all-in-one units that never saw production, I would love to own the "Neptune" Genesis-32X combo unit just to simplify the pain of hooking up a 32X mushroom to play one of 20 games. The prototype photos of that combo unit looked all kinds of sleek plastic goodness. Also, the idea of pairing the "Neptune" with the "Saturn" would have been hilarious if both systems hadn't cooperated to bankrupt the company.

That handheld system I posted on the last page has built in emulators for all of the systems you listed!

I've go a bunch of Sega CD games left for the next game sale - I run one annually. Do you have original copies of Lunar? Those are gems....

[Leo656]

I always wanted a TurboGrafx-16. They had ads in EVERY comic book back in the day, including lots of two-page ads and mini-comics for things like Bonk's Adventure. Really intriguing for any kid at that time in the pre-SNES and Genesis days, when the NES was becoming stale but the "next gen" hadn't kicked into full gear yet. Problem was, as usual, nobody around here sold it. Such was Nintendo's stranglehold on the industry back then. I don't mean to come off like I'm knocking them, I've always been a big Nintendo fan, but as a fan of the free-market I can't help but sigh looking back on all the really cool consoles that never really had a chance to catch on in this country. Like Nintendo probably still would have "won" but it could have been more of a fair fight.

My one friend did somehow get a TurboGrafx-16, briefly. Seemed pretty cool, I don't even know where he got it because they were like unicorns around here. I barely got to mess with it, though, as like many others he got rid of it for a Genesis. He was one of those kids whose Mom only let him get a console if he got rid of the one he already had, so over the next couple years he went from TurboGrafx to Genesis to Saturn to Playstation in pretty rapid succession. Probably wishes he'd hung onto the TurboGrafx in hindsight, though. I poke around once in a while and games for that one seem pretty expensive nowadays.

Stuff like the Neo-Geo and 3DO only existed in magazines, for guys like me. They seem really awesome, though, but I'm not surprised they didn't catch on. As distasteful as it can be to say, it really was the "Video games are for kids" era, still, and high-end consoles like that were just not going to find an audience due to the cost and lack of big-name titles, outside of arcade ports obviously. But I remember flipping through EGM and just marveling at how advanced they seemed compared to the rest of what was on the market in 1993.

I remember being intrigued by the Atari Jaguar, since I was an Atari fan from way back. But it just didn't seem like it had any really great games for it, so I never really felt compelled to get one. Even now, sometimes I almost want to but the library seems pretty anemic. Most people cite "Tempest 2000" as its best game and that just doesn't really appeal to me.

Never really been a big handheld guy, for whatever reason. The lack of backlighting really diluted my interest in the various Game Boy machines, and Sega's handhelds ate batteries so fast that they seemed pointless to me. A few of my friends had a Game Gear, and they only ever played it with the wall charger, and at that point you might as well just be playing Genesis, y'know? Same with the Nomad. The only kids I knew who got any major use out of the Game Gear or the Nomad, were the kinda-poor kids who only had one TV in their house. So they could plug into the wall and play games without fighting with their parents over the TV, but otherwise the lack of portability in a "portable" system made it all seem a bit pointless.

It's really only been the last 15 years or so that I've gotten into playing more Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games, on the Gamecube's Game Boy Player. I just prefer playing games on the TV, I'unno.

One thing I'm glad I was never foolish enough to bite on was the Philips CDi. I used to always stay up way too late as a kid and Nick At Night used to play the CDi infomercial several times a week. They were really hoping that showcasing "the new Zelda game" you couldn't play anywhere else would move some units, but it didn't even look that good in the dang infomercial.

[Andrew NDB]

I remember the Atari Jaguar being very interesting. It did claim to be 64 bit, too (which was false, if I recall... it just used two 32 bit processors) but I think it was way too expensive? Neo Geo too.

Turbo Graphics 16 was interesting. It's surprising that Bonk isn't still a thing today.

[Wildcat]

I miss referring to hardware with bits. It stopped with the PS2/Cube/Xbox era. I seem to remember the Dreamcast was said to be 128 bit. Plus there was that Mario 128 demo. So it’s safe to assume those were all basically the same. DC was actually part of that era. It just launched the earliest.

I know it’s no longer measured that way but for the fun of it I’m really curious what today’s consoles would be. Is the PS5 like 3,150 bits? :lol:

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Game & Watch

Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Commodore 64

Personal Computer

Nintendo Switch

[Leo656]

I remember the Atari Jaguar being very interesting. It did claim to be 64 bit, too (which was false, if I recall... it just used two 32 bit processors) but I think it was way too expensive? Neo Geo too.

Turbo Graphics 16 was interesting. It's surprising that Bonk isn't still a thing today.

Nah, the Jaguar launched at $250 in 1993, not far out of line with the launch prices of the SNES and Genesis, and dropped to $150 in 1995 to try and get ahead of the Saturn launch.

It was just a mix of bad timing and no "killer app". They had practically NO third-party support whatsoever, at a time when those third-party games were more important than ever. The SNES and Genesis were fighting a two-horse race in America, trading "wins" back-and-forth year by year, but which one you owned had a lot to do with console-exclusive games and third-party support. Want Mario and Zelda? You had to have an SNES. But meanwhile, Sonic was becoming a juggernaut and you could only play his games on Genesis. Want officially-licensed sports games? Then you needed a Genesis. RPGs from Square and Capcom fighting games like Street Fighter II in all its forms? SNES. If you somehow were lucky enough to have both an SNES and Genesis, you had hundreds and hundreds of games to choose from, but even if you were "stuck" with one over the other, your gaming preferences were well-covered by what was available.

By contrast, the Jaguar ended up seeing only 50(!!!) games released in its entire lifespan, and its "best" games were also generally available on other systems. There simply were no exclusive "must-have" games to give it an identity in a marketplace that was already becoming crowded - despite Sega and Nintendo's dominance, the 3DO and Neo-Geo were also fighting for shelf space at this exact time, and the Saturn, N64 and PS1 were right around the corner.

Price definitely wasn't the inhibiting factor; if anything, "Hey, it's cheap!" became Atari's sole rallying cry as the Saturn prepared to come out. In response, people replied, "There's nothing to play on it, so who cares if it's cheap?" If you look at the list of games released for the Jaguar, 99% of them are games nobody's ever heard of, and the handful otherwise are things like "Double Dragon V", which were released on other consoles and frankly not that great to begin with. No exclusive "killer app", no brand mascot platformer like Sonic or Mario, no RPGs, no big-name fighting games, no Capcom, no Konami, no Square, no Midway, no Final Fantasy or Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat... people simply said, "No Thanks".

I think if they'd managed to get better third-party support, that at least would have given them a foothold. Without Capcom, especially, at that point in time any new console wasn't going to have much success. And with Capcom and Konami pretty much locked-in with Nintendo (albeit with some allowances to work with Sega), that just wasn't gonna happen. ALL the "new" systems coming out during that time suffered from this to some degree.

As is, many experts look back and point out that the only reason Sony didn't have the same uphill battle with the PS1, is because Nintendo alienated all the third-party developers by sticking with the cartridge format for the upcoming N64 and their restrictive licensing agreements. Nintendo basically screwed themselves; before that, a lot of people predicted that the PS1 would fight the same losing battle as the Jaguar, for the exact same reasons. Instead, ALL the third-party developers immediately jumped in bed with Sony and we know what happened from there. Nintendo learned the hard way, as Atari already had, that you gotta have those third parties on your platform if you want to stay in the race. Those mascot platformers and timed exclusives only carry you so far.

But yeah, the Jaguar's failure definitely wasn't down to dollars-and-cents. But a relatively "cheap" console still becomes a very expensive paperweight if there's simply nothing worth playing on it.

The Neo-Geo, by contrast, had some great games and the console actually sold WAY better than the Jaguar, which shocked me (over a million consoles vs. the Jaguar's rather pitiful sub-250,000!), and with over 150 games released compared to the Jaguar's 50. But again, almost no third-party support and 99% of those games being either fighters or shooters really limited their mainstream appeal. That plus the cost (Almost $700 for the console and games themselves costing about $200 each!) meant that the Neo-Geo was always going to be a niche system. It was definitely the best way to play arcade games at home at that specific time, but if your interests lay outside of those specific games - almost all of which were developed by SNK themselves - you were kinda beat. Like "Merry Christmas, kid; hope you REALLY like Samurai Shodown!"

I'd definitely pick up a Neo-Geo if I were rich, though, no question. If only to play arcade-perfect versions of those Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury and King of Fighters games. The only real problem was if you cared about playing anything ELSE. But holy sh*t, those games are too expensive to try and get the "authentic" versions of now, I'm fine with all the numerous compilations that exist. At least the games are out there, y'know? If I had a million dollars, though, yeah, I'd probably get some Neo-Geo stuff.

[IMJ]

At least the games are out there, y'know? If I had a million dollars, though, yeah, I'd probably get some Neo-Geo stuff.

So at this point it probably looks like I have stake in that handheld system that I posted above, but the RG-350 also has TG16 and NeoGeo emulators in it. So here's a story about why I bought this thing that might help some people out regarding two options with all of this system talk....

A few months back I read something about an upcoming system that looks pretty amazing. It was called the Analog Pocket (https://www.analogue.co/pocket). That system is terrific and it plays a huge range of actual game cartridges from the Gameboy to the TG16 chips, to the Jaguar. Apparently it does this on pure hardware - no emulation which is also amazing. So that's a huge solution for those of you that want the actual 80's and 90's cartridges physically in your collection.

Now I have a lot of TG16 stuff left over from my last game sale and I thought that the Pocket would be a cool way to dive into it. But then you start looking at Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, etc and you realize that you are building another game collection of "stuff". Don't want any part of that. So I found the RG-350 (https://retrogame300.com/products/rg350). A fraction of the price, tons of emulators, no need for physical games, plays all of the systems the pocket does and more.

So basically for anyone that wants to deep dive into retro game systems you can try to find an Analog Pocket to order and it will use your physical games. Or you can find an RG350 to get your fix and then put it down in twenty minutes when you get bored. My recommendation is the RG-350 because the truth about retro gaming is that the pull to play is hard but once you start playing the nostalgia only tends to last until the first death or the end of the first level before you got your fix and don't care anymore.

Also, both the Pocket and the RG-350 can hook up to your TV via HDMI and play any of those games on your flatscreen. So with each you get a handheld and a T.V. system.

[sdp]

I'm surprised so many people who owned Xbox also owned the Playstation for that same generation when you count that 95% of the games released are the same. Even during my "hardcore" game phase I thought it was a waste of money to own a Gamecube and PS2 and you can argue the differences in exclusives was bigger then, especially because of Nintendo.

[IMJ]

I think people who bought a Gamecube did it because the legacy games on that system were supposed to be pretty good. Metroid, stuff like that. I don't know why you'd think a PS2 was a waste of money. It was the best selling game console of all-time.....

[Leo656]

I had all three as soon as they came out. There was never any question as to that. For me, there were a variety of factors.

- For one thing, I'd started working after high school and had my own money for the first time. Therefore, I was determined to "live it up", as they say.

- We didn't have a DVD player yet, so the PS2 was mandatory.

- Metal Gear Solid 2 was going to be exclusive for the PS2 for a while, and there was no game I was more excited about at that time.

- Each console was getting its own series of WWF games, and they were each totally different from each other, so that alone pretty much mandated getting each of the three consoles (even though the ones on XBox turned out to be less than stellar).

- Graphically, most of the multiplatform games looked better on the XBox. As I've said, I'm no graphics snob by any means, but it's nice to have the "best" version of any multiplatform game. The difference was usually negligible, but nicer graphics and shorter load times were big check marks in favor of the XBox.

- The XBox had an absolutely cavernous hard drive, which is a huge deal when you play as many games as I do. Whenever things were tight, if I had to choose whether to buy a version of a game on XBox or PS2, it mostly came down to whether or not I recently purchased any memory cards. If they were all maxed out, I'd get the XBox version of the game.

- The Gamecube absolutely had the Mario and Zelda games I couldn't live without. But furthermore, I much preferred the "Day Of Reckoning"-style WWF games over the "SmackDown" series. So even leaving Mario and Zelda out of the equation, my Gamecube got more hours of play than the other two quite often just because of the wrestling games.

- The Game Boy Player was just impossible to resist. As I've said, playing games on a handheld doesn't appeal to me much, BUT that doesn't mean the games themselves don't, and there have always been a ton of Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games I was very interested in. The opportunity to play hundreds of handheld games on my TV - and further, my wife being able to actually watch me play them, something she loves to do - was a huge boon.

So, as you can see, there really was no sane choice except to go all-in on all three, and all three got a ton of playtime in our household. In looking at the lists of what I actually own for each system, it appears that I have about 58 Gamecube games, 56 PS2 games, and 43 XBox games (give or take, I counted fast). This doesn't tell the entire story, however, as there's a few mitigating factors. Firstly, I owned a PS2 before an XBox, so a few multiplatform games I might have otherwise bought for XBox I ended up owning for PS2 instead. Furthermore, both my PS2 and XBox broke quite a while ago, so a chunk of my Gamecube games were ones I bought to replace the ones I couldn't play on the other two consoles anymore (or at least in the meantime while waiting to replace those consoles, which I haven't bothered to yet).

I wouldn't say either the PS2 or the XBox were a "waste of money", as there were definitely advantages to having either. I will say, though, that if you didn't care about Halo, there wasn't much that you could only play on XBox. If I had a gun to my head and I HAD to choose only one, though, it would be the XBox, simply because of that massive hard drive. I mean memory cards were like $20 each back then and you could easily buy most used games for that price, and when you have like 50 games for a system it's nice to never have to worry about storage space. But I mean, you couldn't go wrong with either, really. Although I will say, my XBox broke way before my PS2 did, so there's that.

It's gotten tougher in the more recent generations to choose between the XBox and PS consoles (Nintendo is always in their own world so there really is no direct comparison between them and the others). We initially got an XBox 360 over a PS3 simply because it was cheaper AND the multiplatform games run better, for the most part, on the 360. We did end up getting a PS3 later on as well, but since I'd already bought almost everything I'd need on 360, my library of PS3 games is rather small, the smallest of any console I own I think. Same thing with XBox One over the PS4, it really just came down to cost. Nowadays the libraries between the two platforms are virtually identical and there's fewer exclusives than ever, and they both seem to run the games just as well, so I don't see any distinct advantages to owning one or the other. But that's just the way I look at it. We do plan to get both the PS5 and whatever the new XBox is called, but not for at least a year. By that point it will most likely come down to cost, but if the PS5 really is backwards-compatible with all the other PS consoles' games, that would be a HUGE mark in its favor, for sure.
----------

I can't say I'm shocked to see the Wii and PS2 dominate the poll, but I'm a little surprised to see how little Sega love there was. I figured there might be more XBox fans, as well. Very interesting.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Historically, NES, SNES, Gameboy/Color/Advance

Sold all of them, but got a SNES again as an adult (kids love it). I get everything on PC these days.

[Leo656]

Ah, yeah, I meant to ask how that was going. Can't go wrong with the good ol' SNES! :tgrin:

Reminds me of another YouTuber I enjoy, Generation Gap Gaming. Although I generally ain't got f*cking time for someone who hates RPGs and Tetris. :tgrumble: But he's a good egg, though. Always warms my heart to see someone getting their kids into the really older stuff and the kids not immediately dismiss it.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I may plunk down some cash to add another SNES cartridge to the family library this Christmas; depends on far I want to drive to do a Craigslist exchange.

I imagine the kids will want to try newer Mario and Donkey Kong games at some point, so when they're old enough to help purchase the systems, then I reckon we can upgrade.

Although my kids both love watching me play Mass Effect, so they may jump off cartoon side-scrollers sooner than I expect. :tlol:

[sdp]

I think people who bought a Gamecube did it because the legacy games on that system were supposed to be pretty good. Metroid, stuff like that. I don't know why you'd think a PS2 was a waste of money. It was the best selling game console of all-time.....

I bought a PS2 AND a Gamecube and thought it was a waste of money buying both systems, the few exclusives for either weren't worth double dipping on a console for me.
I see in the poll many people who owned PS3s owned 360s or PS4s & Xbox One, and those have even smaller libraries of exclusive stuff.

[CyberCubed]

Any kid who hasn't grown up playing Mario games or Nintendo games in general must have had a rough childhood.

It's basically videogame etiquette that all kids should be started off with Nintendo games and exposed to Mario at an early age. It's almost heresy or blasphemy that there are a kids/teens out there who never touched a Nintendo game in their life and just grew up with Playstation/Xbox.

If I ever have kids, my future kids won't leave the house until they've played every Mario game from start to finish from the original all the way up to the current date.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Any kid who hasn't grown up playing Mario games or Nintendo games in general must have had a rough childhood.

It's basically videogame etiquette that all kids should be started off with Nintendo games and exposed to Mario at an early age. It's almost heresy or blasphemy that there are a kids/teens out there who never touched a Nintendo game in their life and just grew up with Playstation/Xbox.

If I ever have kids, my future kids won't leave the house until they've played every Mario game from start to finish from the original all the way up to the current date.

How are you gonna have kids, man? No self-respecting woman is gonna get with a man who pirates his entertainment, and no un-self-respecting woman is gonna get with a man who can't keep her supplied in Vicodin or cocaine.

[Leo656]

HAH! When you're right, you're right. :lol::lol::lol:

My wife's never actually finished a Mario game, either. She just doesn't give a sh*t about platformers. She only really plays fighting games, racing games, wrestling games, and open world stuff like GTA or Red Dead. When she was a kid she played a little Sonic like everybody but even that was forever ago. She's fine watching me play them but she just doesn't care about playing platformers at all.

I've tried to correct the situation but it is what it is.

[IMJ]

How are you gonna have kids, man? No self-respecting woman is gonna get with a man who pirates his entertainment, and no un-self-respecting woman is gonna get with a man who can't keep her supplied in Vicodin or cocaine.

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Holy $#!(, man......

[oldmanwinters]

I gotta say, there is a certain level of personal pride I've felt being the "only guy in town" to own a particular "current' system. I first felt that sensation by being a 32X owner when everybody else was getting ready for "true-32 bit" systems (I really wanted to play Knuckles Chaotix and Virtua Racing Deluxe). And that pattern continued (to a lesser extent) when I got a Dreamcast and a Wii U.

[IMJ]

Dreamcast

So hyped as it was coming out and yet so short lived. Crazy.

[oldmanwinters]

So hyped as it was coming out and yet so short lived. Crazy.

I took my first Dreamcast to a lot of parties and it was always a bit hit with games like Power Stone 2, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Worms: World Party, and even NBA 2K (on arcade mode). Everybody I knew who played a Dreamcast enjoyed it, but it's undeniable that the Impending Arrival of the PS2 was a juggernaut (and specifically Madden NFL 2001 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjt0km0CjVw)) that a weakened company like Sega just couldn't withstand.

And like others have pointed out, many people who bought a PS2 did so primarily because it was an affordable DVD player at the time.

XBOX and GameCube seemingly filled the niche as the go-to systems for "party games" with multi-player rompers like HALO and Smash Melee.

[Prowler]

NES
Mega Drive
Game Boy
Game Gear
SNES
Game Boy Pocket
Saturn
N64
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
PS2
GameCube
Wii
3DS
Switch

I no longer have the Game Gear nor the original game boy/pocket. I still have the Mega Drive but no longer have games for it and it's been collecting dust on top of a closet for like 18 years now, so yeah...

[Reinako666]

I have all of the consoles in the poll, except for the Dreamcast. I don't own a Dreamcast.

Recent console I got was the Wii U and I love it so far.

[NeonTurtledude]

Playstation 2
Wii
Wii U
Nintendo Switch
Game Boy
Game Boy Colour
DS and 3DS

[Turo602]

Consoles I've Owned
Playstation
Gameboy Advance
DS
DS Lite
DSi
Xbox 360
Xbox 360 Elite
Nintendo Wii
3DS
3DS XL
Xbox One
Xbox One S
Xbox One X
PS4 Slim
PS4 Pro
Switch

Consoles I Own Now
Nintendo 64
Gameboy Advance SP
PS2 (Slim)
Gamecube
Xbox 360 S
Wii (Black)
PS3 (Slim)
Wii U
New 3DS XL
Xbox Series X
Switch OLED
PS5

[DarkFell]

Sega Genesis.
Game Boy Color. (RIP)
Nintendo 64. (RIP. I miss playing my games too.)
Playstation 2.

I was close to buying a Sega 32X. My dad talked me out of it and suggested that I buy a PS1.
Now, I never had the console, but I do have a PS1 game.

[member_removed]

Sega Master System II
Sega Megadrive
Gameboy Pocket
PS 1, 2, 4 and 5
Switch.

I was a Sega die hard in my youth, fortunately the Saturn died in the ass by the time I could afford to upgrade and the Dreamcast was wasn't released yet. So I hoped on the Sony bandwagon and apart from missing the PS3, I haven't looked back.

I still have working Master System, Megadrive PS1 and PS2. I just bought a house and hope to set up a retro station.

[ChosenOne]

(Bootleg) SNES, SEGA Genesis (called Mega Drive here), PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4.

[ProphetofGanja]

the xbox 360

[Icebot]

NES
Game Boy
SNES
Nintendo 64
Game Boy Advance
GameCube
DS
Wii
3DS
Wii U
Nintendo Switch

I still have every one of those except Game Boy.

[Andrew NDB]

I've had the PS5 for a couple of years now. X-Box Series X for about a year.