20 years later...

[Shozuki]

Even arcade MK was pretty awful at the time.

Lol your probably right, but it was blowing my tiny child mind!

[DeathAdder]

GameBoy with Tetris for me, which, like so many others, I didn't put down all day. That was Christmas 1990. The next day I spent my Christmas money on Tennis and F1 Race, turning down baseball and Alleyway. The Gameboy was PAL, but the games were Japanese - how the hell they found their way to Dadabhai (any long term UAE residents remember that toy shop) in Sharjah, I'll never know.

When I went back to boarding school, I spent my emergency money on Double Dragon and TMNT, and pinched toothpaste and other essentials from other boys for the rest of that term.

[k0pp0]

This is the first game I ever remember being properly addicted to.....


I think it was my older brothers though, not mine.

Wham! Like being smashed in the face with a memory.. Completely forgot about those - me and me brother had one..

[DANGEROUS-3]

The first videogame I ever recall playing was Street Fighter II arcade in 1991 whilst on holiday in Gran Canaria.
I was 11. My bro who was 6 at the time popped a coin in and started playing arcade mode, then I stuck a coin in the other side and started kicking his ass repeatedly which he kicked up a stink about ensuring my parents removed me from the cabinet.

In 1992 I used to rush round to be friends house every saturday morning just to sit and watch him play Alex Kidd in Miracle World on the Master System II. I never wanted to play ('cause I was crap at it), but just watch him play the game which enthralled me. Later that year in August my dad took me to Boots on the highstreet (yup they used to sell consoles) and even tho it was not my birthday just bought me a MSII with the Alex Kidd in Miracle World built in.

Ever since then I've been a SEGA die-hard.
My all time top 10 fav games looks something like this-

Shenmue II
Outrun/Outrun 2
Doom 3
Ninja Gaiden / Black (Xbox)
Sonic 3
Sonic Generations
Sonic Colours
Ninja Gaiden II
Virtua Fighter 5
Super Mario Galaxy 2

[dataDave]

I remember when Boots sold consoles and games... I had my first go on F-Zero in boots.

Comet used to have a demo SNES where all the 1st generation chavs would hog SFII. I already had one by then anyway.

[nakamura]

One thing I have never done though, is focus my time on one company only. I did go NES-SNES-PS1-N64 until around 1997 but inbetween I had friends with MS-MD-Saturn so kept playing everything.

The 16bit era was fantastic for seperate experiences on different consoles. SNES had Mario, F-Zero, Mario Kart, Pilotwings etc but the MD had Road Rash, Sonic, EA Hockey, Madden among others.

[dataDave]

I just made sure I got a console every damned Christmas.

Atari > Speccy > NES (1991) > SNES > MD > ??? (1994 - I can't remember what I got that year, the chances of an import Saturn were nil so I probably wasn't arsed with anything) > PSX (1995 - Paid for myself thanks to part time job) > 1996 - Saturn games, swapped a friend my PSX for the console.

From 1996 onwards I stopped getting real presents as I was out of school and grafting.

[nakamura]

1996 was my last year. Wipeout 2097 and Street Fighter Alpha 2 I think. 2097 blew my mind to pieces and I still play it now, fantastic.

Alpha 2 was a massive let down though.

[MisterBubbles]

Nice Ikobo, ive got the Galaxy Invader,1000 and 10000 still boxed and in working order, and this baby too, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmYE9z9Mbjk

[Golgo]

I remember when Boots sold consoles and games... I had my first go on F-Zero in boots.

Mate of mine used to work in the games and electronics section of Boots and used the 'double-decks'/'ghettoblasters' that they also sold at the time to copy games for us. Piracy, terrible thing...

[monel]

Nice Ikobo, ive got the Galaxy Invader,1000 and 10000 still boxed and in working order, and this baby too, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmYE9z9Mbjk

I've got the Grandstand Firefox and maybe a couple of others somewhere. They may need a clean, though. A Tomytronic, too, I think. Retailers- when the Megadrive launched here, Toys R Us was probably the biggest official stockist- they had every game. ?45 for Ghouls n Ghosts- can't believe it now. Dixons had a much smaller selection, I should have just trusted the importers. I visited the indie game shops, though and a friend was importing loads of stuff. I can remember Virgin Mastertronic (I think they handled Sega's European business then) taking ads out before the official MD release warning against 'Grey imports' and how UK games wouldn't work on foreign machines in the future. It was enough to put kids off, now you would laugh at those ads. NEC did something similar, too.

[Grapple Convoy]

?45 for Ghouls n Ghosts- can't believe it now.

I remember those days, aye. That would be ?70 in today's money, I think. Consoles seemed to me a real aspirational purchase. What seemed like (in the days before MAME!) arcade perfect conversions in your own home, astonishing.

That's probably why I'm into 16-bit retro now, and have been since the PlayStation/N64/other era. All those games I craved after as a child reading magazines, or watching being played in the local Dixons, I had neither the money or console to play. (My dad hated anything "Japanese", had to rely on my mother to get the Nintendo consoles I did get, and the games were birthday and festive presents only).

[dataDave]

Alpha 2 was a massive let down though.

Are you talking about the shoddy PS1 port or the game in general? One of the Saturn games I bought myself that year was SFA2 and it made the best Christmas ever.

I never really regretted trading the PSX for the Saturn, apart from when I wanted to listen to the music in Tekken 2. No Youtube in those days.

[nakamura]

Are you talking about the shoddy PS1 port or the game in general? One of the Saturn games I bought myself that year was SFA2 and it made the best Christmas ever.

The PS1 port was far from shoddy but I am talking about the game in general. I hated the cheap sounding music and the lack of chain combos as standard. The custom combo thing was boring and the whole game felt a step down in most areas.

[rmoxon]

Street Fighter Alpha 2 was a much better game than the first Alpha, so I dont kno how it could be a disapointment.

Plus even though the PS1 port was poor it was still a pretty good game even after it had been buggered up. The Saturn Version was amazing though.