Growing up Gaming: which is your system?

[starfox316]

Like many of you DP'ers I grew up gaming. I was born in '86 so some of you are probably older and more experienced.

With that in mind, which console did you grow up (and if you are on this site, in love) with that made games your passion. Just starting this thread as a collective respect board for our old flames in gaming history. Plus, my original psx took the great digital leap into the after-life last week. Captain Frank, my cat jumped and dumped a whole 2 liter of sprite on it, it never stood a chance. So yeah, I got remeniscent and started this thread.


I had an NES in elementary school and was given a Genesis at the early 1990's. But it wasn't until I traded in my 2 month old Nintendo 64 that I discovered: Playstation.
PSX made me the man I am today and it only got better as I imported. First it was Wave Runner, then Monster Rancher and Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil and then, the rpg's. Final Fantasy 7, Wild Arms, Grandia, Xeno Gears, Jade Cocoon, Lunar Silver Star Story. All these games were with me as I grew up and now I have a genuine emotional attachment to the memories I have of playing them. Going to school the day after Pa Rappa the Rappa came out and talking to my friends about how bad-ass the beats were, damn.

Playstation started all this crazy gaming addiction for me. It wasn't that psx created, the NES created it. It was the Playstation that gave me the goods though, it showed me the infinite fun gaming had to offer.

Please keep that in consideration when you answer this thread, too. Don't focus on the first system you ever had. which system was THE ONE, the one that made gaming so much more for you?


Starfox316's playstation: 1996-2007

for all the good times, homie.

[MarioMania]

The 2600 was the 1st one for me..But the NES was the System for me

[Three-P]

Born in '78, I got my first taste of gaming when the Colecovision came out. It also had an Atari 2600 add-on, so it was like 2 systems in 1.

[mrmark0673]

Being 22, the NES was the system I grew up on. I didn't get on the 16-Bit wagon until late middle school, damn cheap parents. I'll thank them for it now, the NES still holds my favorite gaming memories.

[Hawksmoor]

It's really difficult, for me anyway, to answer your question within the parameters you provided. I'm 29, and my love for gaming goes back to the early 80's playing games on my father's various obscure computers (like the Osbourne) and the 2600 my folks got for my brother and I.

I got an NES shortly after it launched and that tided me over console-wise until the Genesis came out in 89. I had actually asked for a TG-16 as my main Xmas gift for Christmas 89, but my brother convinced my father to get the Genesis instead. I was initially pretty pissed off, but ended up loving the system. Around that time I also got heavily into the handheld scene, buying an original Gameboy, then a Lynx I, followed by a Game Gear.

I own virtually every console and handheld released in the last 20 years, with a few exceptions. I can't honestly say that one of them stands head and shoulders above the rest as my definitive favorite. I just love the medium. To me a great game is a great game, regardless of the console or handheld it's made for.

[Nebagram]

83-born, for me it was the Mega Drive. Sonic, Mortal Kombat (yes, yes, I know), Micro Machines, hell, I even had a 32X. So many good times... :-)

[8-bitNesMan]

The handle says it all...

[Steven]

1983 child here. Grew up on NES, Gen, SNES

[CosmicMonkey]

NES, Gameboy and Super Famicom.

But the Dreamcast was the console that got me back into gaming.

[shopkins]

I started gaming with the 2600 and played it constantly. I didn't even know there was a videogame crash, just that we were buying our 2600 games at the flea market lately.

But I guess the NES is the one that really got me hooked, and Super Mario Bros. is the game that did it. It just seemed like such a leap ahead, almost as if it was a little world you could adventure in and explore more than a challenge of dexterity. That was the system I discovered RPGs on, too, with Dragon Warrior, and maybe even adventure games with Maniac Mansion.

[bangtango]

My family always had the classic systems in the house including the Atari 2600, Odyssey 2 and Commodore 64. I used to enjoy those older games but even then, I figured that I'd grow out of them someday and probably not play games once I got a little older.

The NES used to keep me up until 4 or 5 in the morning as I tried in vain to beat certain games which didn't have a save feature. We owned that, the Super NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, the 7800 and Master System. I spent all day long playing them sometimes, I certainly was at it most of my weekends and all through the summer. I wouldn't say those systems made me the person I am today.

So although I was gaming regularly even before you were born starfox316, a lot of what I was playing or owned was influenced by parents, siblings, friends, etc. A lot of the games in my home that I supposedly "owned" were mostly part of a shared collection with older and younger siblings. I had a few things of my own but those systems or games were in the extreme minority.

I didn't take the hobby by the horns until I owned a Sega Dreamcast. I hadn't picked up a new video game in several years. When I finally purchased one over at Walmart one night, I picked it out myself and my decision to buy it had nothing to do with what anyone else in my family was playing. I still have this very same unit in the original box and it has been handled with care so I haven't had to write a eulogy for it yet.

I don't know if it counts or not but I've been a gamer most of my life. I just never took an active interest into having my own stuff, all to myself, until around the time the Dreamcast came out.

[Melf]

The first console to hook me was a 2600 back in '79. My friend got one for his birthday and I rode all the way across the neighborhood for the chance to play, even putting up with his jock older brother.

The console that is dearest to me is the Genesis, by far. It was the one that made me desperate to cut lawns, wash cars, etc. to get the cash for games. We've been in love for 18 years now.

[Steven]

The console that is dearest to me is the Genesis, by far. It was the one that made me desperate to cut lawns, wash cars, etc. to get the cash for games. We've been in love for 18 years now.

On top of this you own one of the best gaming sites out there on the web, making your story truly good stuff. I loved the Genesis from 89-93, but once the SNES really got the ball rolling in '94 I just never was able to appreciate the Genesis the same way. Last year I re-purchased a Genesis looking to reclaim the magic. Just wasn't there, although I thoroughly enjoyed working my way through Shining Force.


Edit:

As for my love of NES/GEN/SNES growing up, the NES wow'ed me with 2 player Contra and Double Dragon II. I remember playing those games to death. The Genny blew me away with its (at the time) arcade-esque quality graphics (esp. coming off the itty bitty NES). My jaw dropped the first time I saw Altered Beast in action in '89 I'm pretty sure it was. ThunderForce III sticks out, as does Sonic. Then you had those cool cult-esque games... Fighting Masters, Trampoline Terror, General Chaos, Haunting, etc.

The SNES though, were the best days of my gaming career. Just that era in general. SFII port blew my mind, Mario Kart, MKII yes blood! etc. The amount of quality arcade ports the SNES had was amazing, as well as the multiplayer games (Bomberman, NBA Jam). It was a great innocent time.

[Griking]

I was born in '69 and grew up with an Odyssey 2 and an Atari 2600 though in the early 80s I migrated over the an Apple II. I've purchased all major consoles in the years since but I've primarily a PC gamer ever since.

[RPG_Fanatic]

I was born in 1971 and started out with the 2600 and i still have all the major systems (NES to the PS3) but the PSone is my personal fav. so many great RPG's on that system.

[ubikuberalles]

I was born in 1960 and so there were no home video games available to me when my age was in the single digits. I do remember playing arcades in my youth whenever the family would go bowling. That was in the early 1970's. One of the games I played wasn't even a video game: my sister and I would each control a flying saucer that was powered by an electric motor. The saucers would only move left or right and we would fire light bolts at each other. If a saucer was hit it would light up and an LED counter would increment. The arcades were my favorite part of bowling night.

So, in short, it was the arcades that got me started in video games.

[7th lutz]

Born in '78, I considered the 7800 or the genesis to be my system growing up. I got a 7800 I was 11 and a genesis when I was 14. I was a late gamer for home consoles and I never owned a computer till I was 16 years old. The only videogames, I played was in the arcade and play pole position or Q Bert. If that didn't count then the 2600 jr was when my dad had me pick a game console at Toys'rus back in 1988. Either way, my younger brother and I bought alot of 2600 games at flee markets at the time, when they were depending on the stand for 50 cents or u[ to 2 dollars up to Christmas of 1991, when I got an nes. In 1992, I got a genesis and it a was big deal for me. It introduced me to rpgs and I played a lot of great games for it along with the fact I saw sega commericals for the system and also played sonic 1 at Target. The nes was big to me, but not as much as a sega genesis was. I owned alot of nes games as a teen and between that system and the genesis as a teen.

I picked up the 2600 jr due to the fact, I had 2600 games at home, and my dad looked at price of the game consoles it was between that and the 7800. I didn't play my first system, Intellivision 2 with the voice moducle, and the 2600 moducle. If I did play it, it was for a short time. I think my dad bought during the crash, but I didn't remember playing it along with the fact there were 2600 games with the system, when I saw my dad playing it in 1987. I didn't play videogames from 1984 to 1988 at home at least. The closest thing to a videogame, was simon I played in that in that time period for me at home. It is possible, I didn't play games on a home console before then.

[Cambot]

I kicked the doors down on this world in 1976, so my earliest gaming memories were on the Colecovision - and we also had the Atari adapter making it 2 systems in one. There's a hilarious series of family photos of my mom, my sister and me - with the last few of just mom and sis (I'm in the background lying belly-down on the floor playing Zaxxon).

My best memories are of the NES, though I credit the SNES as my favorite system for all the games I grew to love - even long after the system became old.

[AMG]

I was born is '75 and grew up with the Atari 2600. That is the console that represents my childhood of gaming.

Looking back on all the consoles I've had over the years, the PSX and SNES are tied as my two favorites.

[boatofcar]

I was born in 81, and while my first video game system was an Atari computer, I was 7 in 1988, which I feel was the year Nintendo really took over the world. Of course, I didn't get a NES until 2 or 3 years later, but 1988 was the year I fell in love with it.