Have you ever gotten out of gaming?

[Fearless]

I started playing mmo's on the pc and was real close to getting rid of all my console stuff. I held off but was real close. Any of you ever gotten out then came back?

[ScourDX]

I got out of gaming when SNES was in decline and 32bit system was on the rise. Eventually I got back into gaming thanks to emulation. So after I start collecting games.

[TurboGenesis]

Not totally but in the later 1990's - the era of the PlayStation, Saturn, and the N64, I was pretty much not playing games. I was into getting messed up and chasing women. My age was 21 in 1997. The only games I play during this time was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, NHL '97 (this was a party game with friends -- we used to do tournaments and had a trophy), and Tales of Destiny.

In December 1999 I got Gran Turismo 2 and thats all my friend and I play.

In Spring of 2000, I play Soul Caliber and buy a Dreamcast just for that game.

Then in October 2000 I purchase a PlayStation 2 with Tekken Tag Tournament and use the PS2 more for DVD viewing

In February 2001, my home was robbed and my Dreamcast and PS2 were stolen. While waiting for insurance, I brought out my NES and my Turbo Duo and rediscovered classic games. I then made many trip to Funco and buy games. While at Funco, I buy Genesis and SNES games as well and bring those console out of storage and hook them up too just like when I was in high school. I discover this site and got back into video games all over again!

So in concluding, I took break from video games for a time of around 1996 to 2000. Now I cannot stop playing games!

[Fearless]

Hey Turbo, ya, I'm close to your age. I go through stages. Sometimes I want out, then I get the urge and cant stop playing. I think my patience has gotten less. I use to have no problem playing a 40+ hour game. Now, after about 5 hours, I get bored and want to move onto something new. I also realized that I still have games sitting around that have never been opened and I cant tell you when or if, they ever will get opened. To me, thats a bad sign. Do I buy them to play them, or do I buy them to just buy them!

[retroman]

That would be a NO.

[Push Upstairs]

Not really, I just bounced from console to PC then back to consoles again.

[Gorez]

Not really, I just bounced from console to PC then back to consoles again.

same.

[FlufflePuff]

I completely skipped the N64/Playstation/Saturn era. I had hit high school and noone was really gaming that much so I stopped. I still played some PC games here and there, but I didn't get back into gaming until my sophomore year of college. Unfortunately for me, I had sold all my SNES stuff when I got out. Lot's of complete RPGs.

[heybtbm]

I swear we had an identical thread at DP about this exact subject a year or two ago. Anyway...

I almost completely stopped gaming during the bulk of my college years (late 1999 through early 2003). Too many other distractions. Any gaming I did was mostly PC games (99% consisting of Age of Empires 2, Diablo 2, and Spider Solitaire) during that time.

The impending release of Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was what brought me back to consoles...well that generation of consoles anyway. I bought a Gamecube in February 2003. And yes, I did buy a Gamecube before I bought a PS2 or Xbox (WTF was I thinking?).

[bangtango]

Like a few people have already said, I was pretty much "out" between the mid-1990's to about 2001. Pretty much the whole 32/64-bit era. About the only thing I was playing was the Sega Genesis and that playtime was scant. Especially after I broke an RF cord (had no AV at the time) and there were no places that I knew of still selling new Genesis parts. I don't know how the hell I ever ending up getting another cord, since nobody had them locally unless I wanted to purchase another complete system. Ebay, I guess? I actually owned an N64 during this time, which I had gotten for Christmas not too long after its release but I literally never played it.

Around the time I got back into gaming, about 2000-2001, I ended up buying a used 2600, Saturn, 3DO & Jaguar all in one fell swoop, decided to concentrate on that dust-collecting N64 a little more and also picked up a new-in-box Dreamcast when it was priced at $99.99.

I think part of the problem, for me, was that I had other things on my mind. Couple that with the fact I was a little pissed the 16-bit era was ending and I didn't have nearly enough money to buy the (expensive) new systems from the newer generation.

[Fearless]

I made the same mistake......I bought a gamecube on launch day....what a stupid idea that was....

[Kejoriv]

i skipped the whole n64/playstation era. went from snes right to xbox

[NE146]

Yes.. during the crash (which I wasn't aware of.. I only knew I couldn't find any more games) my 5200 went under my bed and I went out and mainly tried picking up chicks other things during most of high school.

Then I picked up a Famicom and went to college

[Overbite]

I don't play them as much as I used to, but I still play

[UniHamachi]

I skipped the entire 8-bit era and didn't get back into it until the tail end of the 16-bit era, circa 1993.

During the PS2?Xbox/GC era, I got a GC on launch and ended up mothballing it for 5 years. I just got back in when I bought a Wii this summer.

[RCM]

I've never considered getting rid of my library but did think about taking a break towards the end of '07. I have hundreds of games and little to no time to really play. It kind of depressed me. I'm trying to make more time for gaming, hope it works out!

[ROTS MKII]

I am too quick and too fast for these people anymore. They might have fooled me once, twice, and three times in a row but they will not fool my children.

In terms of me stopping period I stopped supporting the drug adicts and drop outs of GameStop.

[Jimid2]

I got out of gaming from about 1995 to 1999 or so... I moved in with my girlfriend in the early 90s when our daughter was born; she ended up in school nights while I was working full time days, so I had zero time to play... combine that with the fact that she always kind of frowned on the hobby (she thought I was wasting my time when I should be playing in bands and writing) and we really needed the money, I decided to sell all my systems... These included a Neo Geo AES with 11 games, a TurboDuo and TurboExpress with all the add-ons and over 100 games, a Genesis w/ CD and 32X and godknowshowmany games, a Jaguar with more than 20 games, a couple of Lynxes with 78 games, etc. etc. I took the money and bought us some furniture and a new computer for her to write her doctorate on...

A couple years later she left me for one of her professors... bitch. Guess how much of the furniture I ended up with...

Oh well, live and learn... Today, things are much happier - my current wife doesn't mind any of my weird hobbies, and my teenage son is my co-conspirator in much of what I get up to that's game or music related... I still occasionally wish I hadn't sold all that great kit though... I really miss the TurboDuo...

[NES_Rules]

I quit playing during the end of the N64 days, I got a Gamecube in 2002-ish and came back in stronger than ever. I sold a few of my games, but luckily no systems.

[Poofta!]

hmm a lot of similar responses here. i too was out-of-the-loop for most of the 90s. but i think i was mostly playing pc games and not giving a crap about what was going on in the console realm.

these days with work and my gf, i hardly play, but collect.