The defining console of your childhood?
 

This might seem like a "what's your favourite console" thread at first glance, but no, not really. What I'm asking you is, what is the defining console of your childhood. Like, what is the first console you think of when you think of your childhood years?

I was born in 1990, but have a considerably older brother, meaning I actually grew up playing on the NES, Mega Drive, Game Gear, original Game Boy, Sega Saturn and the SNES. So games like Mega Man 2, F-Zero Sonic 1, SMW, Street Fighter 2, Mario Paint, SMB 3 and Tetris are all defining games of my childhood... but I'd say the Nintendo 64 is the console of my childhood. It came out in 1996 when I was 5-6 years old, and my brother bringing it home with Super Mario 64 is also one of my earliest memories in life. If NES/SNES/Mega Drive games looked awesome already to my kid-self, then Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, F-Zero X, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, etc. looked out of this world to me. It felt like gaming had reached the highest point ever.

Saturn was also a 3D machine, and ofc it was a big part of my childhood as well, but the N64 was better in my eyes. Basically, I was beginning school(1st grade) when the N64 came out and was finishing either 4th or 5th grade when it was discontinued. I didn't exactly accompany/grow together with the previous consoles I mentioned above. They were already a bit "old" by the time I was having a blast playing N64 myself and watching my brother play it in 1996-1999.

Honorable mentions go to Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. I wasn't a teenager yet when both came out and were at the height of their respective popularity. Meaning, every school day I'd see a bunch of other kids playing on their GBC/As during recess. Every single kid had a Game Boy to play pokémon primarily.

As for a final honourable mention, the GameCube. It came out in 2001 and I got it as a Christmas present in 2002 when I was 12 years old.

I'd have said the PS2 as well since it came out in 1999, but I did not get one until I was 15 and missed a lot of its biggest titles. And the PS1 means absolutely nothing to me. I don't think I even knew exactly what it was back in the 90s. I was fully happy with my Saturn and N64 at the time.

What about you? What's the defining console of your childhood?

Sega Master System. Just because of the division it made with my friends.

I had a similar experience with you regarding the GameCube. I was always the only one or one of the very few ones that had a GC while everyone else had a PS2. I even knew more people that had an Xbox. Defending the GameCube in front of PS2 fanboys was a rough task when I was 13-15 years old.

Oh man, this is such a great thread idea that I'm surprised no one made it before. :D

I have the most chilhood experiences with the Original Playstation and GameBoy Advance, but since handhelds are not considered Consoles by many, I'll go with the former.

Back then, the graphics were super breath-taking (atleast in my eyes, I was pretty behind even for the time), and since my PS1 was modded to play pirated Games (this was pretty much unavoidable in Third World Countries even in "offical" looking stores), I had a pretty vast library of games that included offical worldwide titles, Japan exclusives and even emulations of games on other systems like the original NES tmnt game.

On the PS1, I have the most memories playing Toy Story, The Lion King, Pepsi-Man, A Bug's Life, Tmnt, Rush, Spiderman, Digimon: Rumble Arena, X-Men and Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Superheroes

It sure was, especially since the PS2 was a hundred times more popularm But atleast the Gamecube proved to be far more timeless. Melee Tournaments still use actual systems instead of Emulators to this day and Smash players can't seem to get enough of the GameCube Controller.

Not just in the "3rd world". No idea about the PS1, but in my country and many others in Europe(probably most of the continent) tons of kids/teenagers had a modded/chipped PS2 that allowed them to download literally every single possible PS2 game for free. I'm sure that's one of the factors that contributed to that console's sheer success as well.

When I was a kid, I believe either Indian or Chinese run stores sold Game Boy carts that contained dozens of games. Almost everyone had one.

I remember those, weren't they called something a long the lines of "101 super games" and had a mix of NES titles and Bootlegs? And who could forget the genuine looking (but fake) Gameboy Advance cartridges that worked fine initially, but would then always crash and make horrendous screeching noises upon starting up :lol:

Well, it was my older brother who chose/decided to buy the consoles and most games. If I had grown up without an older brother who loved Nintendo I'd probably have ended up buying the consoles most kids did in my country: the Sega Mega Drive and the Sony consoles.

Is that a fair comparison, though? Is there even a Smash like game on the PS2? The PS2 had several exclusive fighting games as well, mostly Tekken and KOF. Mortal Kombat and Dead or Alive were available on other platforms as well.

Well, GameCube had less games with realistic graphics like the PS2 did, so ofc many of the top titles for the GC still look great nowadays. Wind Waker aged gracefully, for example. Also, the PS2 is a couple of years older than the GC, so I guess that explains it as well. I think the GameCube was actually the most powerful console of its generation ro was it the original Xbox=

Nintendo 64, I was old enough to get the most out of my games yet I was still a little kid.

NES (child), Sega Genesis (teen), Sega Dreamcast (college-ish)

NES.

There was also Atari 2600, but it was around for very little amount of time. After that it was only NES.

Sega Genesis. Well Mega Drive outside of the US.

We got an NES in 1990 I think and had a handful of games but I was kinda too young to play well. When I got a Genesis though I was like 8-9 and it came packed with Sonic. So stuck with that.

I even had the Sega Channel. It was that gaming streaming service offered through your cable provider. It was awesome at the time. All Genesis games (full games not demos) that would alternate monthly.

Sega stopped support after the Saturn came around obviously. Then I got a PlayStation in 98.

The Atari 2600 was the first console we owned. I then begged and pleaded for an NES, and won to Sega Genesis on Double Dare. #HumbleBrag

I still have all three.

PS2. I wish I’m playing Harry Potter again now. :D

Look, I know you two were young during those days, but console wars are just f*cking stupid. Period.

As for me...

The NES from 4th grade to 8th grade.

The Game Boy from 6th grade through college.

The SNES from 8th grade to 12th grade.

The N64 through college. (Shut up)

NES and SNES
 

NES and SNES

Genesis/Mega Drive is the console that comes to mind. It was the first console I ever got (well, I did get a Commodore 64 as a hand me down, but it didn’t work for some reason) and loved most of the games (particularly the Sonic ones) I played. Was 9 at the time I got it in 1996. Graphics blew me away (was used to playing the Tiger electronic handheld games before that).

Had no idea you played games at some point in your life. Which ones were your favourites?

Well... that's the thing. We were kids. Ofc console wars are dumb. And tbh, I was more upset at other kids trashing Nintendo than anything. I eventually got a PS2 Slim in 2005.

I have a love/hate relationship with video games.

I tend towards puzzle or adventure games more than anything else, because they're the ones best suited to coming back to once you've gotten so frustrated with them that you've chucked them across the room.

Old...excuse me vintage console-wise I'd have to say that Maze Craze was hands down my favorite. Or at very least it was the one I played the most.

ET was one of the first games I ever completed.

I played a lot of Towering Inferno and Atari Circus too.

Someday, when I get my NES up and running again, I'm going to find a copy of the Darkwing Duck game that I loaned to a guy in college...and I'm going to finish that badboy.

The actual order of my consoles...

I recall owning a Texas Instruments, an Atari... something. Maybe a couple of Ataris, and a Coleco Instruments. All at once, simultaneously they just sort of appeared (I'm assuming my dad just already had them in the house when I became consciously sentient as a little kid). And then...

Sega Master System

Then my parents made me sell my Sega Master System to buy a...

NES

Somehow along the way I did get a...

Gameboy

Then some time passed and I think for Christmas I was given a...

SNES

That kept me for years. Eventually I was working at McDonald's in high school and able to buy a

(at this point I was just buying my own consoles entirely)

PSX
PS2
Nintendo Gamecube
PS3
X-Box 360 (then sold it 2 years later, only ever played Ghostbusters on it)
Nintendo Wii

Giant gap and then finally:

PS4

And my wife owns an X-Box One so that's sort of communal property.

What kind of puzzle games?

Adventure? As in Zelda?

LOl loan/lend stealers are the worst. This is why I'm super selfish and always take a step back when I mention a game/book/movie wtv I own and love and someone asks me "oh can I borrow it?"


That Darkwing Duck game is basically a Mega man 5 clone. It's solid but a bit challenging and frustrating at times.

The only version of Zelda I've ever played was the one from the Gamboy Advance, which...I started, got frustrated with, and then went back to Tetris.
Because...that's how I roll, apparently.

Though I have a very vivid memory of a friend's father playing the very first Zelda game. We were all under STRICT INSTRUCTION not to go near the tv, which was off, because he had the Nintendo set up and there was no save feature, only pause.

And anything that could make him lose his place in the game would be the end of us, hyperbolically speaking.

I mean, it wasn't the NES Ninja Turtle game, but I never did get past that Quacker Jack level.

Speaking of that TMNT game, never did get past the Disarming the Bombs level either.

I have to take my NES in for a cleaning and pin alignment, so maybe I can finally find Donatello.

GBA Zelda game' Was it Minish Cap?

You know.. I never knew you could liberate captured Turtles in that game. I was never able to do that at least. Only learnt you could do that soem years ago.

The furthest I've got in that game was to the airport level, but only made it there once. Usually I end up dying by level 3. But I was only able to get past the dam(n) level when I was already 17-18 years old and after watching some TAS plays on youtube.

As for DD game... I beat the first 3 levels, but then 3 others pop up and I don't think I beat any of those?

I had a friend in 7th and 8th grade, and we were friends in high school although we went to different schools. Despite getting an SNES, he was like, the ULTIMATE Sega fanboy. It got on my nerves.

I enjoyed the N64 with the seven total games I got for it, but a part of me wishes I had a PlayStation back then as well. I got the original PS2 model in 2002, but I was already done with college by then.

I didn't even know of the Nintendo vs. Sega rivalry/war until I read about it around 2006-2007, when I began reading more about video games on the internet and the history of the industry which was by then easier due to wikipedia being a thing. So yeah, as a kid I enjoyed both the Nintendo and Sega consoles we had. We only had a handful of games for the genesis, though. My brother bought it near the end of its life when it was dirt cheap already. He also waited for Saturn's price to drop massively(which happened rather quickly, tbh) before buying one.

I never envied the PS1 or knew/cared much about it, but defo envied the PS2. it had a lot of exclusive cool games I wanted to try out. Didnt' envy the original Xbox much, though.

PSOne, because it was my favorite. NES and SNES were amazing, but I eventually became a Playstation fanboy.

I got my first console for Christmas 1993. By then Nintendo had just finished making new games and I had an entire backlog to explore. It was a good starter game system despite having to blow to get it to work every few times you play.

N64 as much in retrospect that I am displeased it moved away form the beat'em up style games that I think of when I think classic video games, I love what it did for gaming. I remember the "wow" factor of Mario 64, Mario Kart '64, and Super Smash Bros.


The video game system that was the most used and still is periodically is the GameBoy. I got the bulky black and white GameBoy in 1994, a year after Nintendo. I wore out battery after battery. My allowance was not money, but battery packs for my Gameboy. As time went on I upgraded to GameBoy Color and then GameBoy Advanced and then GaemBoy DS and then 3DS. The last two years I have not really played any games aside from a Marvel App on my phone,but for more than two decades GameBoy served countless hundreds of hours of entertainment.

Yes, even though nowadays there's countless mobile games, I had a lot more fun with Game Boy games back in the day despite the more outdated technology. hell, to this day, Pokémon RBY and Pokémon GSC are still fun despite showing their age.

Having to replace batteries sucked but at least there were no ads or micro-transactions or pay-to-win games.

The GBA was a magical machine. The games I most vividly remember are









The 3DS comes close; I'm sad to see it being outmoded after all these years.

The GBA was pretty cool and advanced at the time. Also, it's funny how nowadays people look back at it as having a pretty good games library, but back then a lot of people complained about it having many NES and SNES ports of games. :lol:

I had that game. Watching that clip makes me want to break out my DVDs for the show.

I remember it coming out a month after I finished college. It sucked not being able to get one since I didn't have a job and I was broke. My first game for it was Wario Land 4.

The Sega Genesis was the first video game console that I felt like was mine. I had played Super Mario Bros for NES, but I was really impressed by the graphics of the Sega Genesis at the time. Sonic the Hedgehog, Aladdin, and Jurassic Park were some of the best.

Nintendo 64 took gaming to a new level for me with 3D worlds and better graphics. Super Mario 64 is still impressive.

Overall, I'll go with Nintendo 64 as my defining console, because the gaming experience felt so immersive.

If we're strict about "childhood", I'll say SNES. I had an Atari and an NES, but the SNES was king for most of my childhood. It could be a coin toss between the NES and SNES, but the SNES was by far superior and I probably spent more hours with it.

To me childhood, in the strict sense of the word, is life before you become a teenager. But the closer I get to 30 the more I consider my teen years, at least the ones from 13 to 17 as part of my childhood as well.

I also included my teenage/high school years since you're basically still growing even then. I still felt somewhat youthful all throughout college as well, even though I was 21 when I finished. I guess you could say I included that portion for good measure.

Nah that I don't, but maybe when I'm 40 I might consider 18-22 part of my childhood as well :tlol:

As a kid, I only had NES/ SNES and game boy. I didn’t own a sega genesis but my next door neighbor had one and I played it a lot.

I got Nintendo 64 for my 19th birthday.

Easily the SNES.

I see the fanboy and fangirl discussions as something for younger children (like between 6-10 or something)

Tell that to the teenagers and adults who partake in that garbage.