Basically, what I'm asking with this question, is what 3 year period of time, was your particular "Golden Years", in terms of being a gamer.
For me, I would have to say that 1989, 1990 and 1991 were my "Golden Years". These were the years that I transformed from a casual gamer who mainly only played sports games, to more of a die hard game enthusiast. It was also the years that I made the transition from the 8-bit NES to the TurboGrafx and the Sega Genesis, and then later the Super Nintendo. During this time is when I played the original John Madden Football for the Sega Genesis, which to me, at that point in time, was a total revolution in sports gaming. And with the arrival of the Super Nintendo, came Super Mario World. A game that had me in a trance for what seemed like 6 or 7 months.
It was just a great period of time to be a young gamer.